Taylor Swift pretty much got shut out of music awards after cleaning up at the Grammys last year, and isn’t even nominated for a Grammy this year, but she could start the whole award-winning cycle again Wednesday, when she’s up for Best Female Singer and Favorite Country Artist at the People’s Choice Awards.

But to win Best Female Artist at the People’s Choice – which airs at 9 p.m. Wednesday on CBS-TV – the Berks county native Swift will have to beat Doylestown native Pink, who’s on a roll right now with her her Greatest Hits album and the impending birth of her first child.

Swift was between albums for the post-Grammy awards season in 2010, but her new album, “Speak Now,” released in October, not only became the first disc in five years to sell more than a million copies in its first week, but jumped back to the No. 1 spot for the past two weeks on Billboard’s albums chart.

Swift won Favorite Female Artist at the People’s Choice last year, but this year she and Pink are up against up against Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Carrie Underwood for Favorite Female Artist. Pink also is nominated for Favorite Pop Artist, but again against Gaga and Perry – and Beyonce and Rihanna.

For Favorite Country Artist, Swift is up against Lady Antebellum and Keith Urban (who won Favorite Male Artists last year), both of whom played at Allentown Fair in September; Carrie Underwood (to whom Swift lost last year); and Rascal Flatts.

Swift's last album, 2008's "Fearless," cleaned up at the first round of awards shows for which it was eligible, including four Grammys, one of which was Album of the Year.

Also at the People's Choice Awards this year, Justin Bieber, who played at Allentown Fair in September, is nominated in the Favorite Breakout Artist category, with Ke$ha, who sold out Stroudsburg’s Sherman Theater in OCtober, and Selena Gomez, who sold out a show at Musikfest in August. Gaga won the category last year.

Bieber’s also up for Favorite Music Video for “Baby” featuring Ludacris, but he’s up against Eminem’s “Love the Way You Lie,” Gaga’s “Telephone” with Beyonce and Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream.”

The latest nominee to come into the Lehigh Valley area is Greyson Chance, the ‘tween boy singer whose YouTube video of him playing Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi” went viral and got him singed by Ellen DeGeneres to her new record label.

Chance will open for Miranda Cosgrove’s sold-out show at Keswick Theater in Glenside on Feb. 6. Here's Chance's viral video:

Remember when people won awards because they were talented? Those were the days...

Posted By: JackieMichele | Jan 4, 2011 4:55:29 PM

Carrie Underwood all the way. I'm a grandmother, and I have watched Carrie since she was on Idol. So many celebrities today are not role models for young kids. Carrie is the personification of a morally upright young woman. She is the artist of the year, decade.

Posted By: Eleanor Cardin | Jan 5, 2011 9:10:47 AM

I agree 100%. Carrie Underwood is the best in the business. Her voice, power, grace, beauty, and amazing personality and presence make her untouchtable in today's music industry. She is miles above any female artist in music today (including Taylor, Katy, Gaga) and will continue to build her legacy with each year ahead. The industry is a joke when Taylor or Miranda beat Carrie for vocalist or album of the year... neither one of the have EVER produced anything that begins to touch songs like SO SMALL, TEMPORARY HOME, JUST A DREAM, ALL AMERIAN GIRL, MAMA'S SONG, etc. Carrie's fans will have the last laugh in 20 years as we look back to her incredible achievements and song catalog. Rob

Posted By: Rob | Jan 6, 2011 3:11:35 AM

Good for Taylor!! She’s also as sharp as she looks and is making lots and lots of money! Has more fans than enemies!!!

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JOHN J. MOSER has been around long enough to have seen the original Ramones in a small club in New Jersey, U2 from the fourth row of a theater and Bob Dylan's born-again tours. But he also has the number for All-American Rejects' Nick Wheeler on his cell phone, wrote the first story ever done on Jack's Mannequin and hung out in Wiz Khalifa's hotel room.

OTHER CONTRIBUTORS

JODI DUCKETT: As The Morning Call's assistant features editor responsible for entertainment, she spends a lot of time surveying the music landscape and sizing up the Valley's festivals and club scene. She's no expert, but enjoys it all — especially artists who resonated in her younger years, such as Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Tracy Chapman, Santana and Joni Mitchell.

KATHY LAUER-WILLIAMS enjoys all types of music, from roots rock and folk to classical and opera. Music has been a constant backdrop to her life since she first sat on the steps listening to her mother’s Broadway LPs when she was 2. Since becoming a mother herself, she has become well-versed on the growing genre of kindie rock and, with her son in tow, can boast she has seen a majority of the current kid’s performers from Dan Zanes to They Might Be Giants.

STEPHANIE SIGAFOOS: A Jersey native raised in Northeast PA, she was reared in a house littered with 8-tracks, 45s and cassette tapes of The Beatles, Elvis, Meatloaf and Billy Joel. She also grew up on the sounds of Reba McEntire, Garth Brooks and Tim McGraw and can be found traversing the countryside in search of the sounds of a steel guitar. A fan of today's 'new country,' she digs mainstream/country-pop crossovers like Lady Antebellum and Sugarland and other artists that illustrate the genre's diversity.